Children in Daycare
The choice for me to stay at home with our twins was made for me. My husband was transferred 1.5 hours away from our hometown where all of our friends and family are when I was 8 months pregnant. I would have to leave my job, and there was nobody to watch our kids full or part time unless we put them in daycare. With two infants, the cost of daycare would have taken up 75% of my paycheck and therefore, not financially worth working outside the home.
I am thankful, because I love staying home with my kids and I couldn’t imagine them staying with a stranger all day.
Many mothers chose to continue their career or do not have a choice in the matter. They leave their children in daycare during their working hours and I am sure that must be very hard.
Today, an article in the New York Times caught my eye about children in daycare. An American child care center has found a preschooler who is in day care for at least one year has an increased chance of having behavior problems in grade school up until the sixth grade.
This was despite the child’s gender, parent’s income or the quality of the day care center.
What does this mean? I guess that we need to be more sensitive to children’s development and how hard it may be to transition into grade school.
What do you think of this study?
You can read the entire article from the New York Times here.
daycare, kids in day care, preschoolers, moms, dads, working mothers
March 27th, 2007 at 9:09 am
It sounds like another rather inconclusive study, especially since there was no control group.
I do agree that “baby mill” day care centers (those that employ college students and/or underqualified staff and have a large number of children) can certainly cause some children to be more agressive once they get into school, which the study pointed out the levels were still within a normal range, but I like to believe that there are more alternatives available to parents.
It seems a common misconception that Day Care refers only to these large centers and that the only other choice is either a Nanny or be a SAHM/WAHM. There are private day care services, which are headed by licensed day care providers that take on limited number of children. My son goes to such a day care. On a full day, there are 10 children, which is rare to have all those stars align. Per our State’s regs, she cannot have more than 2 children under the age of 1, and with her 10 children who are under contract, she is at a full load.
The study mentioned staff turn over as a possible cause for some developmental issues. I guess I am lucky as our current care-giver is the same person who has been in my son’s life since he was 9 mos old.
Instead of these studies being used to pit SAHM/WAHM against mothers who chose day care (or vice versa depending on the study), they should instead figure out what changes need to be made to the systems that make parents feel as if they have no choice w/o severely impacting either the family budget or the amazing advantages to a nuclear family.
March 27th, 2007 at 9:15 am
DD, I agree.
I think that problem will only be resolved once this country and the businesses that are in this country understand that mothers are valued. We need better maternity leave, we need paternity leave and on site daycare centers will only improve a woman’s performance in the workplace.
The nuclear family is so far behind in priorities in this country. Very sad.
March 27th, 2007 at 10:29 am
For more ‘DAYCARE DRAMA’ please see ‘DIVORCE LAWYER THROWS PARTY AT DAYCARE, ENTICES WITNESSES FOR CLIENT’ on the MOMMY GO BYE-BYE blog at http://mommygobyebye-virginia.blogspot.com/2007/02/divorce-lawyer-throws-party-at-daycare.html . . . ~Veronique Wyvell, RN, McLean, Virginia, Founder of ‘MOMMY GO BYE-BYE: Mothers Against Unjust Law,’ Member of Fairfax County Network Against Family Abuse (NAFA) {Please feel free to send your stories for publication to VWyvell@patriot.net}